Wednesday, December 03, 2014

cyberwar and oil war and racism and rants

I was reading yesterday about the head of the EU who just resigned after five years. Heh. I never heard of him, which says a lot about the coverage of that organization. Apparently he is one of those pushing the oil war on Russia, along with President Obama.

Summary: Iran and Russia sell oil and now the US is fracking and so doesn't need to import a lot of oil. That means countries can sell oil to other countries cheaply, and so Iran and Russia will see a fall in their export profits. Other sanctions cause Iran's oil price to be a bit higher, and China and India buy it, but if the price difference is too much, they might not.

Belmont club has more here.But the Red/Green campaign availed not. Daniel Yergin writes in the Wall Street Journal that Putin is being crushed by politically incorrect America. “The decision by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countrieson Thursday not to cut production reflects a profound shift in the world oil market. The demand for oil—by China and other emerging economies—is no longer the dominant factor. Instead, the surge in U.S. oil production, bolstered by additional new supply from Canada, is decisive. This surge is on a scale that most oil exporters had not anticipated. The turmoil in prices, with spasmodic plunges over the past few days, will likely continue.” Technological advances mean North American oil might be viable right down to $50 a barrel.

that is good news for us: Low LPG means less pressure on the poor to cook using wood, and more profit for farmers using handplows etc and more profit for tricycle drivers and more profit for companies that ship goods around.

If I remember correctly, the recent film about Grace Kelley had this as the "crisis" for the plot, since Monaco was doing the same thing.

Come to think of it, South Dakota has been doing this for years for the financial sector, and of course the Cayman Islands and other small countries do a lot of this. In Asia, it is Malaysian banks that hold the dictator's money, and a lot of the Hong Kong protests have the subplot of China wanting to move their banks and banking profits to the mainland where .rule of law isn't as strong

A lot of this is not covered in the news, although they do cover it on the BBC and the financial news.

Remember when Russian hackers blew Climate change out of the water by releasing records suggesting it was a scam and the CC folks were cooking numbers? It works both ways...

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FilAm Fernandez at Belmont club also notes the people left out of the Fuerguson narrative: Industrious immigrants.

The Times of India notes: “the hotel industry in the United States, particularly the budget hotels segment, is dominated by people of Indian origin. Some 60 per cent of all budget hotels, typically called motels, are owned by Indians. Their predominance has led to the term ”Potel Motels” because they are usually run by Gujaratis with the last name Patel.” So whenever a night motel clerk is robbed or a convenience store is looted in a low income neighborhood the guy at the losing end was probably called something like Patel.

what is not included in the agenda: Teaching students skills that help them to get jobs: Honesty, politeness, correct language, promptness, and cultural clues and body language that tell others you are a responsible person. Sort of like "To Sir with Love" lessons.

Ironically, fast food jobs do this: the pay is lousy, but if you work for a year at McD etc you have a good chance to get a job elsewhere, because those employing you know you are neat, clean, polite, and come to work on time.

Ironically, the left's war against low wages will only result in these jobs being replaced by robots.

No, it's not a racial or a cultural trait: it's because of gangs
So when the president insists that cops and "racial profiling" are the problem, he is ignoring that gangs are the ones doing most of the murders. And they victimize the good people in the neighborhood: lots of pressure on good kids who "act white" (i.e. study a lot, dress neatly, and attend church).

But no one has asked if gangs have anything to do with Feurguson.

Well I was perusing the extreme right wing news (and archeology stores) at FR, a man posted an article suggesting the victim was once involved in a crip gang related killing. The story was promptly contradicted by commenters saying, no way: he was shown in photos wearing read and flashing "blood" gang signs. (the crips and the bloods are enemies).

The "victim" was a gang sympathizer? I didn't read this in the press.

But never mind. It doesn't mean he belonged to a gang: Maybe he was an innocent trying to blend into the woodwork and not get beaten up by "acting white".

In other words, amnesty is to keep Hispanics on the Democratic side, and Fueguson kerfuffle is to keep the black community from noticing their kids can't find jobs because they are filled by immigrants.

Censorship of these stories because it is politically incorrect means that people will rely on extreme sites and conspiracy shows to get their information. And that is a real danger, because they lack perspective.